I had to hide from the downtown KC condo gunman. It doesn’t have to be this way | Opinion
On Oct 25, Rithvik Talluri, a second-year medical student at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, rushed away from The View Condominiums’ parking garage as several police officers set up sniper rifles to target an unknown, armed assailant at the top of the building. At 2 p.m., just before Rithvik’s arrival at the parking garage, another resident of the building took one of his 12 weapons to fire from the 19th floor without purpose or reason at the street below.
Several of Rithvik’s and my peers live in the high-rise at the northeast edge of downtown. That afternoon, the once safe and familiar street became the center of violence and fear. With active group chats rapidly trying to assess the potential danger, and a lack of concrete information, my fellow med students and I hid in our rooms, frantically trying to understand the situation. Rithvik would later state that he was afraid, but that “we got through it because we had each other.”
Two weeks before this neighborhood shooting, Rithvik and I were collecting data to survey the impact of firearm-related trauma on homeless patients in the area at the UMKC’s free, student-run Sojourner Health Clinic. We had begun this research alongside Michael Moncure, a trauma surgeon at University Health, who has been a monument in promoting real change to improve our city’s safety. With our hearts set on reducing violence in the areas of highest need, we designed a study to review the implementation of a firearm-trauma risk score developed by a team at the University of Michigan.
According to our preliminary analysis of more than 40 subjects, we found that over 60% of homeless patients hear firearms being shot around them daily. This statistic came to life with each person’s story of fear, trauma and pain. One patient sat me down and said, “It’s like a war zone out there.” He was a man in his mid-50s, homeless, passionate and obviously intelligent. He was outspoken about the issue and banded together more patients in the waiting area to discuss solutions with our team.
I asked him if there was anything that could change this reality, holding back tears and holding my stomach tightly. He answered without hesitation: “stricter gun laws that keep dangerous people out of our neighborhoods.”
These stories are not just isolated experiences for the patients we see at the local health clinic. Rithvik and I, along with many other medical students, continue to witness the rampant and unrelenting effects of unrestricted access to firearms on the well-being and safety of all our community members.
According to Everytown for Gun Safety, more than 120 people are killed due to gun violence every day in the United States. A report in The New England Journal of Medicine found that the No. 1 cause of death in young adults and children in 2020 was firearm-related injuries. Beyond these metrics, Rithvik and I have found that there are entire communities of American children, families and businesses forever traumatized by an endless sound of bullets.
When asked about a solution, our patients all have the same answer: better policies. Policies that mandate universal and federal background checks have protections for extreme risks (such as psychological decompensation) and require permits for carrying concealed firearms have all been shown to decrease firearm-related deaths and criminality associated with illegal firearm distribution. For example, one recent analysis found that states requiring background checks had fewer firearm-related homicides. A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association reached similar conclusion for reducing firearm-related suicides. Extreme risk laws would empower community members to protect and take care of members at risk. Almost one-third of mass shootings with four or more fatalities were driven by shooters who exhibited dangerous warning signs before the event, according to Everytown.
I still remember one patient who visited the free clinic with her granddaughters. With an interest in pediatric subspecialties, I approached the family to ask what the girls wanted to do in the future. Having regularly interacted with other children while assisting with Sunday school activities, I expected to hear brilliant dreams of becoming an actor, astrophysicist or therapist. However, their grandmother simply frowned at me. With a stern and sad look, she reflected the harsh reality our children face today: “They just need to survive the school system-make it out alive.”
It is that grandmother’s voice, and the voices of many others, that have made our work and advocacy increasingly important. Regardless of one’s political affiliation, we hope that both sides of the aisle can agree that gun violence in our neighborhoods, classrooms, and community spaces is a tragedy that requires our full attention. As medical trainees who have regularly engaged with our most vulnerable community members and hear firsthand patient experiences of firearm-related trauma every day, we urge you to advocate, donate and lobby for programs and policies that advance safety and well-being for every American citizen.